Overview

It is
possible to learn without being educated. Learning merely implies the amassing
of knowledge. An educated person is much more than a receptacle for facts. He
or she is able to present those facts to others with grace and clarity, and to
manipulate and juxtapose them with a broader base of knowledge in order to gain
new insights. Finally, an educated person never ceases to test his or her
knowledge against the highest standards of scholarship and to develop new ways
of thinking about the facts that he or she encounters or uncovers in the course
of a lifetime.

Education
at the graduate level clearly implies the amassing of knowledge beyond that
gained in an undergraduate degree, but the nature of the knowledge and the ways
in which it is gained and used are also significantly different. It is expected
that graduate students will gain detailed knowledge about a more specialized
field than at the undergraduate level. The process of acquiring that knowledge
is also much more independent and more reliant upon the initiative of the
student. In spite of the necessarily specialized nature of the new knowledge,
at Stony Brook graduate students are expected to maintain a broad perspective
on their studies, such that they are able to take part in scholarly discourses
in the broadest possible range of disciplines. Graduate students are,
therefore, responsible for extracurricular self-education within and beyond
their own fields of study; the mere satisfaction of the technical requirements
for a degree is not sufficient to make one an educated person. With education
comes responsibility. Stony Brook demands the highest level of scholarly ethics
from all members of the academic community. Graduate students must make
themselves aware of the ethical issues of academia in general, and of their own
fields in particular. No degree candidate can be considered fully educated who
lacks an appreciation of these values and a dedication to upholding them.

The requirements in this section are the minimal ones mandated by the Graduate
School; the individual graduate programs may set additional requirements. Any
changes in requirements will apply only to students who first matriculate in
their particular program after the change is approved and communicated to
students at the time of admission. The University reserves the right to alter
these regulations without notice.